: The future of advertising models on premium OTT platforms #IndiaNEWS #Samosa Snippets In the present day, paid subscription means ad-free content for viewers on premium OTT platforms, but will this

The future of advertising models on premium OTT platforms #IndiaNEWS #Samosa Snippets
In the present day, paid subscription means ad-free content for viewers on premium OTT platforms, but will this revenue model sustain the digital content ecosystem or advertising would be a part of the paywalled world of content? We find out the resolution to this concern with industry experts.

In a fireside chat with Chanpreet Arora, Business Head, VOOT (AVOD), Viacom18 Digital Ventures, and Karthik Shankar, Head Of Digital Trading, GroupM explore what the future model of advertising on premium OTT platforms would look like.

Chanpreet shares that the growth of premium platforms during the pandemic has been recorded at a 49% increase in time spent on OTT platforms. Indian mobile internet consumed 4. 6 hours of video as a daily average in the last year, which is the highest consumption rate in the world. India also holds 29 Mn paying subscribers.

Here we explore how advertising can fund and grow the INR 291 Bn digital Indian industry, through advertising on premium platforms.

The Future Model

Karthik dials back to the lineage of advertising and mentions earlier when consumers would purchase newspapers, or today when they pay for cable service, they still see ads, and this model has not changed.

He believes that users will adopt the platforms producing quality content, and advertising will be a part of the paid ecosystem as well. It started with Sports as a subscription category and moved to News, OTT, Audio, Video, and Commerce. He doesnt see subscription existing as a pure-play.

Chanpreet shares that Voot took a leap of faith with the launch of Big Boss with advertising on the shows live stream. But she adds that theyre remaining cautious, being more relevant, and clubbing AdTech.

She reckons that the ideal ecosystem behind a paywall is still being explored in the industry but better quality content and more contextual ads, can cover the cost of content production and scale-up OTT platforms.

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Chanpreet adds that currently at an industry level there are two layers of subscription ad-free subscription at a higher price model and ad-supported subscription at a lower-priced model. She shares that majority of the online content consumers in India may go for an ad-supported lower price model.

She adds that Linear to VOD has experienced a big explosion, where 66% of the boom has happened, age-gated and personalized content has transformed the industry.

The Structure Of The Future Model

Karthik states that different brands have different appetites for risk and developing a risk assessment framework that lists down investments, and content a brand would like to be associated with, can help structure the future model of advertising to paid subscribers, and investments would be sensitized.